Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Jamaican-American poet and 2SLGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin courageously reclaims the art of mothering.
“My mother’s leaving me was the first wound.”
Staceyann Chin embodies multiple complex identities — poet, activist, lesbian, Jamaican-American, mother. But the most complicated of all is ‘daughter.’
Abandoned by her mother as a child, Staceyann has been seeking her out for decades, travelling the globe in a one-sided attempt to forge a meaningful bond with the woman who brought her into the world.
And now, as the sole parent of nine-year-old Zuri, she wrestles with an all-consuming dilemma – how to mother a daughter when your own mother was missing in action.
In an extraordinary tale of grace and forgiveness, filmmaker Laurie Townsend profiles one woman’s inspired and deeply intentional parenting. Catching up with Staceyann as she follows the elusive trail of her mother Hazel, a woman with her own troubled past, A Mother Apart takes us to Brooklyn, Montreal, Cologne — and finally to Jamaica where Staceyann and Zuri discover a new sense of home.
A healing journey spanning three generations, the film is punctuated with vivid animation, imagery from personal archives and excerpts from Staceyann’s arresting live performances. Her singularly intersectional voice, showcased in the legendary Def Jam Poetry Slam and hit solo shows like MotherStruck!, infuses A Mother Apart with deep compassion and commanding intelligence.
#Motherhood #Mother #FullDocumentary
Title: A Mother Apart (2024)
Director: Laurie Townshend
Jamaican-American poet and 2SLGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin courageously reclaims the art of mothering.
“My mother’s leaving me was the first wound.”
Staceyann Chin embodies multiple complex identities — poet, activist, lesbian, Jamaican-American, mother. But the most complicated of all is ‘daughter.’
Abandoned by her mother as a child, Staceyann has been seeking her out for decades, travelling the globe in a one-sided attempt to forge a meaningful bond with the woman who brought her into the world.
And now, as the sole parent of nine-year-old Zuri, she wrestles with an all-consuming dilemma – how to mother a daughter when your own mother was missing in action.
In an extraordinary tale of grace and forgiveness, filmmaker Laurie Townsend profiles one woman’s inspired and deeply intentional parenting. Catching up with Staceyann as she follows the elusive trail of her mother Hazel, a woman with her own troubled past, A Mother Apart takes us to Brooklyn, Montreal, Cologne — and finally to Jamaica where Staceyann and Zuri discover a new sense of home.
A healing journey spanning three generations, the film is punctuated with vivid animation, imagery from personal archives and excerpts from Staceyann’s arresting live performances. Her singularly intersectional voice, showcased in the legendary Def Jam Poetry Slam and hit solo shows like MotherStruck!, infuses A Mother Apart with deep compassion and commanding intelligence.
#Motherhood #Mother #FullDocumentary
Title: A Mother Apart (2024)
Director: Laurie Townshend
